Text Leveling System

Blueberries on Parade

RDQ:	444	Max Word/Sent	23	Total Words	942		Diff Words	356
Lex	620	Ave Word/.Sent	7	Hi Freq occurs	562	59.7%	Hi freq	145	40.7%
AR	2.6	Long Sentences	1.5	Low Freq occurs	25	2.7%	Low freq	20	5.6%

"Our troops salute you Francis" said the
leader of the Blueberries. All the girls smiled their
biggest smiles.
Francis the ladybug sat in his bed in the ant
infirmary. He had rescued Princess Dot the smallest]]
Blueberry from a bird. That's how he had hurt 
his leg.
"And to honor you we've added spots to our
bandannas" said Teeny.]]
"And guess what else?" exclaimed Dot. "We want
you to be our honorary Blueberry troop den mother!"
Francis scowled. Dot and the other Blueberries
thought Francis was a female because he was a ladybug.]]
"Wait a second!" said Francis.
Just the Dr. Flora came in. "Okay. Let's run
along girls. The patient needs to rest. You can visit
again later on."]]
A few days later Dot and two of the
Blueberries returned to Francis's room for
a meeting. They were very excited as they
giggled and talked to one another.]]
Francis sighed. "What do I know about being a
den mother?" he grumbled. "How did I get stuck
with this job?"]]
Dot raised her had. "May I start the meeting?"
she asked. "I have something important to say."
"Yeah all right" muttered Francis.]]
"We have another big surprise for you Den
Mother" began Dot. "To thank you and the other
circus bugs for all that you've done we are going to
put together the best parade ever!"]]
"And we want you to help us" Teeny added.
"Right girls?"
"Right!" answered the other Blueberries
enthusiastically.]]
"Oh great" thought Francis.
"Well girls" he said "why don't you go
outside and get started? I'll just take a little rest
and join you later okay?"]]
"Okay!" the Blueberries cheered. Then they
rushed over to Francis to give him a hug.
"Watch out for my leg!" Francis cried.]]
But it was too late. The girls were already piling
onto his cast.]]
"Oops! Sorry Den Mother" said Dot. She
and the other Blueberries tried to make Francis
comfortable again.
"We've never held a parade before" Dot
said. "What do we do first?"]]
Francis tried to be patient. "Why don't you 
start by making a nice little flag for the parade?
Outside!"
"Hey yeah!" exclaimed Dot. "Thanks for the
great idea!"]]
The next day the Blueberries met and happily
made plans for the first-ever Blueberry parade.
They decided they would march from the Blueberry
clubhouse to the banquet hall. There the parade
would end with a big party.]]
But the hardest part would be making the
flag. They wanted to make it extra special
to please Francis. But none of the designs they
came up with seemed quite right.]]
"I know!" Dot suggest finally. "Let's each make 
our own special decoration to put on the flag."
The other Blueberries loved the idea. Soon they were 
sticking bright bits of flower petals pebbles and leaves
on the flag with tree sap.]]
When they were finished the flag looked
wonderful! The blueberries were just getting ready
to show the flag to Francis when they heard a
Splat! The flag had been hit by a chunk of berry!]]
"What's happening?" cried Dot.
Splat! Another glob of juice hit the flag. The
Blueberries scrambled to save their flag but it was
too late. There was bright red juice all over it.]]
Suddenly the girls heard laughing. They turned to see
the Boysenberry troop grinning at them.
"Those mean boys!" exclaimed Teeny. "They always
ruin everything. Now what are we going to do?"
"Let's go ask our den mother!" Dot suggested.
"Francis will help us!"]]
A little while later the Blueberries stood sadly
around Francis's bed. They were holding their
stained flag.
"The Boysenberries did it!" Dot sobbed.]]
She looked so upset Francis couldn't help but feel
sorry for her.
"Poor girls" he thought. "Maybe I can help them
out a little."]]
"Okay Blueberries!" Francis exclaimed. "You want to
keep those Boysenberries out of your antennae?"
"Yeah!" cried the Blueberries.]]
"Then listen to your den mother!" Francis
commanded. "If we all work together we can still
have the parade - and teach those Boysenberries
a lesson!"]]
Over the next several weeks the Blueberries met
with Francis. He helped them make a new flag. He
also told them they needed to get ready in case the
Boysenberries attacked again.]]
"The key is to outsmart them" Francis told the 
girls. "And I think I know how."
Then he told them all about his plan.]]
On the day of the parade Francis was
finally able to get out of bed. After wishing
the Blueberries good luck he went to join the
other circus bugs to wait for the parade to begin.]]
But the Boysenberries were ready too. They
had put berry juice along the parade path so the
Blueberries would slip in it. The boys hid nearby
waiting for the parade to pass by.]]
Suddenly the Boysenberries heard the sounds of the 
parade. But it wasn't anywhere near them!
"Hey!" cried on of the boys. "What's going on?"
The Boysenberries ran out into the road. They slipped 
and slid in their own berry juice! They had been
tricked! The Blueberries had chosen another route.]]
Meanwhile the Blueberries had begun marching
along the other side of a nearby hill. The Boysenberries
would not be able to ruin their flag this time!]]
Francis sat proudly among the circus bugs and
watched the parade approach.
"Look at that flag!" he declared to his friends.
"Isn't it great?"]]
The Blueberries stopped in front of Francis and
saluted him.
"Well done girls" Francis said.
The Blueberries cheered. Francis smiled and shook
his head. Those little Blueberries sure had grown on
him. "Maybe being a den mother isn't so bad after
all!" he thought.]]

Subjective Criteria

Illustrations: Some support

Dialog: Multiple speakers

Dialog: Broken dialogue

Vocabulary: More decoding/definition issues

Language: Few descriptive words

Sentences: Multiple phrases

Text structure: Blend of written/oral

Concept: Fanciful

Features

Topic

Bullies

Parade

Helping

*Entertainment & Fun

Low Frequency Words

antennae	approach	banquet	boysenberries	boysenberry
enthusiastically	honor	honorary	infirmary	meanwhile
muttered	outsmart	patient	piling	rescued
route	saluted	scowled	scrambled	suggest